


Neighbors

by westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist



Category: The West Wing
Genre: F/M, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-18
Updated: 2009-12-18
Packaged: 2019-05-30 18:09:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15102170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist/pseuds/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist
Summary: New neighbors definitely cause migraines for Donna.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A copy of this work was once archived at National Library, a part of the [ West Wing Fanfiction Central](https://fanlore.org/wiki/West_Wing_Fanfiction_Central), a West Wing fanfiction archive. More information about the Open Doors approved archive move can be found in the [announcement post](http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/8325).

  
Author's notes: This story is meant to follow "Unspoken Part 2," but if you haven't read it, you can still get the main idea. In Unspoken 2, Josh and Donna got intimate over a weekend in the Adirondacks. In this story, they've returned home and have had to keep their romance secret for months.  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters.  


* * *

“I could’ve sworn I just saw Josh Lyman come inside,” Lauren said.

“Josh Lyman? Why would the Deputy Chief of Staff be in this building, besides, I overheard Will talking to him on the phone saying it would be a late night at the office.”

“Huh. Must’ve been a look alike. Where’d you put the box with the pictures and nails?”

***

“Hi, where’d you park?” Donna asked, kissing Josh quickly on the lips as he shut the door behind him.

“About two miles down the street.”

“Seriously, Josh.”

“Seriously!” Josh dropped his backpack and hung his suit jacket on the coat rack near the door. “I’m two blocks down and one street over.”

“Good.”

Donna took off the yellow rubber gloves she’d donned to clean the kitchen and bathroom. She’d rarely had a chance to clean in the past month, and unlike Josh, she couldn’t afford a cleaning person.

“I hate this, Donna.”

“Hate what? The smell of Pine Sol?”

He took off his tie and flopped onto the couch, briefly smelling the cleanser Donna was referring to. It _was_ overpowering, but he wouldn’t have even noticed the scent had she not pointed it out.

“The sneaking around, the constant surveillance.”

“Well, there’s one way to stop it,” Donna said sitting next to him.

“’Fess up?”

“Okay, two ways…confess or stop.”

Josh smirked. “No way. We’re not stopping.” He reached out to touch her face.

“I don’t mean stop it altogether, but stop with the sneaking. Besides, I thought we agreed in Lake Placid that we’d hold off on being together except on the rare, out of town trips?”

“Can you honestly do that?”

“The stopping?”

“Yeah.”

“Doubtful.”

He leaned closer to her, lips a mere inch from hers before taking the plunge. They tangled arms and tongues for a few minutes before Donna removed herself from Josh’s web.

“Do you hear that?”

“The banging?”

“No Josh, the beating of my heart. Yes, the banging!” Donna sighed. “I have new neighbors. They just moved in over the weekend.”

She jolted her head back on the cushion.

“Have you met them yet?”

“No. There’ve been like 15 people in and out of the apartment over the past three days. Mostly college-aged girls. I can’t figure which of them lives there.”

“Maybe you should introduce yourself? And tell them they might hear some banging of their own.”

Donna slapped him. “Josh!”

They retreated to the bedroom and proceeded to get ready for bed. After discussing work for a good 40 minutes, Donna climbed in bed, turning out the lamp next to her.

“…even if Haglund DOES agree to the thing, it’s still not going to make me like him any more than I did a year ago!”

“Josh?”

“What?”

“Just so you know, I tuned you out about ten minutes ago.”

“You didn’t hear the stuff about Haglund?”

“Nope.”

“Donna that was good stuff!”

“You wanna see good stuff?”

She pulled him by the waistband of his boxers to the edge of her bed, kissing his stomach. She spent extra time on his bellybutton just to hear him giggle when her tongue tickled the inside. His hands on her head pulled her a bit further down, and she grinned. Donna tugged at the fabric at his waist, and captured a very eager Josh in her mouth.

Josh was not quiet. He was not quiet at work, in a bar, in a library, nor in bed. And nothing made him less quiet than a well-done blowjob. Of course it was the sensations that he most enjoyed, but the sight of Donna’s blonde hair bobbing up and down, tickling his thighs, is what sent him over the edge. Just the sight of that made him shiver and scream her name what felt like a hundred times.

***  
“Cassie, do you hear that?”

Lauren motioned for Cassie to stand next to the bedroom wall where she was busy hanging a bulletin board and pictures.

“Oh my God!”

The two girls grinned at each other.

“This is disgusting. We need music or something.”

Cassie plugged in her stereo and turned the volume high enough so that the moans were drowned out. It didn’t help that the song on the radio was “Justify My Love”.

***  
“You are spectacular.”

“So you’ve said. Many times.”

“I figure you’d never tire of hearing that.”

“Damn straight,” Donna replied, pushing over in the bed to make room for a very sated Josh. He cleaned himself up in the bathroom, then joined Donna in bed. They both tossed around restlessly for over an hour.

“My God, do those people ever sleep?” Donna rolled over and threw an arm over her head.

“I can’t stand the banging. And the music.”

“Are they playing the music to drown out the banging? It’s one in the morning! I’m going to go tell them something.”

Donna threw off the covers, got out of bed, put on a robe, and walked to the door. Meanwhile in bed, Josh threw his hands over his eyes. “This cannot be good.”

Knock, knock, knock.

“Is somebody at the door?”

“I think I heard knocking. Turn down the music. What if it’s the cops?”

“It’s not the cops, just answer the door!”

“Come with me!” Cassie yelled.

The two girls peeked through the peephole to see Donna Moss standing there.

“Holy Shit! Lauren, look.”

Lauren peeked and covered her mouth upon seeing their visitor.

“That WAS Josh Lyman. Which means –”

“Oh my God!”

Knock, knock, knock.

“I know you’re in there, open up!” Donna said.

“Shit, what do we do?”

“Open the door, Cassie! We’ll pretend we don’t know her. If she recognizes us, we’ll play along.”

Cassie did as she was instructed.

“Hi, I’m your neighbor, Donna Moss,” Donna extended her hand to each girl, “I know you’re just moving in and all, but the banging on the wall and the music, it’s a bit much at this late hour.”

“Sorry, Ms. Moss. We’re trying to hang some pictures in our room and I guess we didn’t realize the time.”

It’s no problem, if you could just wait until morning, that would be great.”

“Absolutely, we’re sorry.”

Donna felt guilty about her harshness, and as she peeked inside, she noticed lots of boxes all over the floor.

“Are you in college?”

“Yeah, we’re both at Georgetown.”

“Ah, that’s nice. My boss’ daughter just graduated from Georgetown.”

Lauren gulped. Zoey Bartlet – her boss’ daughter.

“Again, sorry for the noise. We’ll be quieter. It’s nice meeting you.”

“Likewise.”

Donna went back to her apartment, and the girls went back inside theirs, hardly able to contain their excitement and speculation.

“Oh. My. God.”

“This is not good.”

“I already said this, but Oh. My. God.”

“What are we going to do?”

“If we want a career in politics, we have to think about this wisely,” Cassie said pacing in the den with her arms flailing about.

“Right.”

“We cannot call any of the girls.”

“Right.”

“We’ll tell Will.”

“Will?”

“Yes, our boss. We’ll tell Will, and he’ll know what to do.”

“Why do we have to tell anyone?”

“Because they cannot keep this up. If they know that we’re interns at the White House, they’ll flip. If we tell Will, he can tell them.”

“Cassie, this is complicated. Maybe we should go tell Donna who we are.”

“Are you crazy?”

***  
The next day, the two interns arrived at Will’s office at 10 am. 

“Will, hi. Can we talk to you?”

Will stopped typing and looked up from his computer. “Sure, what’s this about?” He looked at his watch. “I didn’t expect you until this afternoon.”

“We have kind of a situation,” Cassie said as Lauren closed the door.

“Okay,” Will stretched out the syllables. “Have a seat.”

“Lauren and I recently moved into an apartment together.”

Will nodded.

“That’s not the point,” Lauren said, “last night I was coming back from the store, and I saw Josh Lyman enter our building.”

“Josh Lyman, as in…”

“Yes, Josh Lyman,” Lauren replied.

“She wasn’t sure it was him, but we’re both pretty sure it was because of what happened next.”

“What happened next?” Will asked with trepidation.

“We were in our room unpacking and stuff, and we heard, um, well, moaning coming from next door.”

“Moaning? Was someone in pain?”

Cassie and Lauren exchanged glances. Lauren ducked her head and Cassie pushed a piece of hair behind her ear. “Not exactly.”

It took Will a minute to register what the interns were referring to, but noticing their evident embarrassment, he figured it out. “Oh!”

“That’s not the worst part,” Lauren said, “We turned some music on and started hanging pictures to, you know, drown out the sounds, and someone knocked on our door a couple of hours later. It was Donna Moss.”

“Donna Moss knocked on your door,” Will stated rather than asked.

“Yes,” Cassie replied, “she introduced herself and asked us to turn our music lower.”

“Donna Moss,” Will confirmed.

The interns nodded. “The reason we’re bringing this to your attention is because we’re afraid of what this could lead to.”

Will took a second to compose himself barely hiding the pinkness in his cheeks. “Okay, you did the right thing…so you think that it was Donna and…Josh?”

“We’re pretty sure, yeah.”

Will sat back in his chair and rubbed his hair with one hand. He’d known since his first day working in the West Wing that Josh and Donna had more than your average boss/assistant relationship. And after throwing snowballs at her window, he understood that at least one of them was pretty much in love, or definitely in ‘like’ with the other. But never did he think these two would be foolish enough to have a sexual relationship while Bartlet was still in office.

“Will?” 

“Yeah, sorry. I was just thinking of the best way to handle this.” He sat up in his chair becoming animated with his hands. “First of all, let’s keep this among the three of us.”

They agreed.

“We should probably talk to Josh and Donna. Or should I talk to them first? Or should you?”

“We don’t want to look like snitches, Will, that’s why we came to you. We thought maybe you’d known something we didn’t. Or that you’d tell us how best to deal with this.”

“Yeah. We should talk to Josh and Donna. Let’s go.”

***  
“Ah, Josh, you’re here,” Will said as he approached Josh’s office.

“Hang on a sec, Will. DONNA!” Josh rolled his chair from his computer back behind his desk. He flipped violently through a stack of papers on his desk.

“DONNATELLA MOSS,” he yelled once more.

Cassie bit her lower lip while Lauren averted her eyes trying to hide a smirk.

“Josh, I was on the phone with Senator Harrington,” she said with a huff not really noticing Will and the two interns behind him. “What is it?”

“The report on Porkchopski, where is it?” Josh answered. His head was still down poking through the papers.

“Pachowski. It’s in the purple folder under the orange one right here,” Donna said grabbing the exact file.

“Um, hi,” Will said meekly raising his hand, “would it be alright if we had a moment?”

Josh and Donna regarded Will and for the first time, noticed the two girls behind him. Donna’s heart took about five seconds to sink. Shit. Oh good God, shit.

Will walked in and closed the door trapping all five people inside. “Donna, I believe you’ve met Cassie and Lauren?” The two girls waved.

“You’re my neighbors, right?” Donna tried being as cool as possible. She smiled and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear as best she could with a pen in her hands.

“Yeah, sorry about the music last night,” Lauren said.

Josh’s face was pale. Donna’s alabaster skin was nearly transparent. She had to steady herself on the corner of Josh’s desk while Josh plopped heavily into his chair.

“We just wanted to introduce ourselves to you formally. We’re interns in the Communications Department. Will’s kind of our boss.”

Donna shook both girls’ offered hands, as did Josh.

“It’s nice to meet you both,” Josh said.

Will looked confused. “Is there something else you wanted to tell Donna and Josh?”

“We weren’t sure if we, um, saw you last night, Mr. Lyman, at the apartment building,” Cassie said.

Josh paused a moment too long. His mouth was stuck in a halfway open position, so Donna had to respond. “Josh and I are friends outside of the office, so he comes over from time to time.”

Cassie and Lauren were nearly as embarrassed as Josh and Donna. They regarded each other, then Lauren spoke. “Oh, that’s cool. It’s just…well, it’s an old building and the walls are, you know, kind of thin.”

Josh put his hands over his face and mumbled, “This is not happening.”

“It is an old building,” Donna replied, “don’t you love it? I mean, the pipes need some work, but the crown molding and the hardwood floors are lovely.”

An understanding passed between the women in the room. Josh was looking anywhere but at the girls, and Will kept his eyes on his feet.

“I know you two are probably in unpacking hell right now, so maybe you could come over for dinner tonight? I don’t cook, really, so how’s pizza?”

“Cool,” Lauren said. The girls smiled and Will waved his goodbyes as they stepped out of the office.

Donna closed the door, still inside and glared at Josh.

“What the hell was that?” she yelled pointing a finger toward Will’s office.

“You tell me!”

“Could you have made it a little more obvious, Josh?”

“This is not good on so many levels.”

Donna fell into the visitor’s chair and Josh put his elbows on the desk and stared at her. She let out a long sigh.

“Why the hell did you invite them for dinner tonight?”

“Josh, don’t you think they know? Thin walls? They…heard us last night. Or should I say, they heard YOU last night!”

“You’re the one who insisted upon, you know. Then you had to march over there and ask them to turn the music down. This is your fault!”

“My fault? I’m not the one who suggested that you come to my place. I’m never the one who suggests spending the night at each other’s places. In fact, I’ve been vocal about this since the beginning.”

“You’re vocal when we’re doing something else too, and I don’t hear you complaining then.” He smirked.

“This is serious, Josh.” Donna looked at Josh, and he turned his head. “We have to talk to them tonight, explain that we’re in a relationship, but it cannot be public knowledge yet.”

“Yet?” he questioned.

Donna looked down. “It may have to be public knowledge before it becomes a White House scandal.”

“We need to talk to CJ.”

“Not yet,” she answered with a hand up, “let’s see how tonight goes, then we’ll decide.”

Josh’s phone rang. Donna answered it, passed the phone to him, and then went back to her desk mortified about the events of the morning.


	2. Neighbors

Donna left work promptly at 6:30 pm, much to Josh’s dismay. He questioned why it was that he had to show up at her place at 8 pm to have dinner with the two girls who presumably heard him having a, you know, the night before. Donna explained that if he hadn’t been so damn loud, this problem wouldn’t exist. So at 8 pm, they’d face the voyeurs.

“Hi, Ms. Moss. We brought this,” Cassie said as she handed Donna a bottle of San Pellegrino.

“I’ll accept only if you call me Donna.” She smiled and took the bottle.

The girls giggled and walked inside. They noticed that the place was spotless, but Josh was nowhere in sight.

“I ordered the pizza 15 minutes ago, so it should be here soon. Can I get you something to drink?”

“Sure, I’ll have some of that stuff,” Cassie said pointing to the bottle. Lauren agreed. Donna, on the other hand, opened her second to last Bud Light. She secretly bought Bud Light over Sam Adams because Josh could have three and not act like a complete idiot. 

“Is it just us tonight?” Lauren asked.

“No,” Donna replied while running the dishtowel for the third time along the countertop, “Josh should be here any minute. In fact, I think I’ll try his cell.”

Donna excused herself to the bedroom and dialed Josh’s cell phone. She paced as it rang four times then went straight to voicemail. Instead of leaving a message, she hung up with a frustrating grunt. As she walked back into the living room, she heard a key in the door and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Hi,” Josh said, walking in with a six pack of Sam Adams. Figures, she though, he’s going to get tipsy before he has this conversation. His usual habit of kissing Donna as soon as he walked in crossed his mind. Should he alter his plan? Should he pretend there’s nothing wrong with the situation and kiss her like normal?

Donna stood planted near the far end of the sofa, her mind just as occupied as Josh’s with their next step. The two girls smiled back at Josh and waved their hellos. Josh regarded them for a second, put the beer on the side table, and walked up to Donna. He kissed her soundly on the lips, one hand on her elbow, the other on her face. Of course there was no tongue involved, but there was no way that kiss would be mistaken as a friendly kiss.

“So you two have the pleasure of working with Will?” Josh asked. He released his hold on Donna, who consequently couldn’t move, and sat in a chair near the sofa.

“Yeah. He’s a good guy. Really smart.”

“Yes he is.”

“Did you order the pizza?” Josh asked looking at Donna.

“Yeah. It should be here in a few minutes,” she said finally able to move her limbs. She retrieved the six pack and put it in the refrigerator.

“You didn’t order that girly stuff with all the vegetables, right?”

The interns smiled. “I like all the vegetables,” Lauren said.

Josh was good at small talk. He knew how to make conversation, and he could relate to just about anyone, unless of course, she was a Republican. He was also a world-class flirt. He just needed to flash his dimples, and he’d have women melting. So he worked his charm with the interns, talking about Georgetown, politics, and women’s role in government. They seemed pleased enough with his responses, and he felt the same. He even learned that Cassie’s father was a die-hard Mets fan, which pleased him to no end.

Once the pizza arrived, the four of them gathered around the kitchen table.

“Ah, pepperoni! Is it no wonder I love this woman,” Josh said as he set down the pizza box and took a big sniff.

Cassie and Lauren looked at each other and blushed.

Donna was quite surprised at Josh’s attitude. At the office, he seemed ready to vomit at the thought of anyone uncovering their covert love affair. But in her apartment, he acted as if they were and always had been a couple.

“You two are the first to know,” he said out of nowhere after taking a big bite of his first slice of pizza.

“Know what?” Lauren asked.

Josh sat back in his chair. “You’re the first to know about Donna and me. And I promise to tell you the truth as long as you promise that you’ll keep this a secret for at least a couple more months.”

“Absolutely,” Cassie replied.

Josh took Donna’s hand in his own and placed them on the table. 

“I’m not sure if you knew or heard rumors about us,” he started, gesturing with his free hand, “but people have been speculating since the beginning of the administration.” He wiped his mouth with a napkin and took a sip of beer as if this was the most natural story in the world. “Donna’s been my assistant for close to five years. I kept my hands off this woman for that same amount of time.” He looked quickly at Donna’s smile. “Which was no easy task.”

“We’d heard rumors, Mr. Lyman, but we weren’t out to prove anything,” Lauren said.

“It’s Josh, and I never thought you were.” He provided them with a warm, dimpled smile.

“The only inappropriateness in our five years as boss and assistant was probably when I’d show up on her doorstep after having one too many of these,” he lifted his beer bottle. The girls smiled.

“Speaking of inappropriateness, you don’t think it was, or should I say ‘is’, inappropriate for you to bellow for me like you do?”

“I do not _bellow_ , I…call.”

“You bellow, Joshua.”

“We heard you today, Josh,” Cassie said, “you bellow.”

“You’re ganging up on me when I’m telling our story of true love?” he asked eyeing Donna. “Anyway, we had a weekend together not too long ago, and it’s kind of where things began. If the media got hold of this, there’s no telling where it would lead. We considered telling CJ, but we were concerned about the consequences. Truth is, Cassie and Lauren,” he paused, looking at Donna, “I’m crazy about this woman, and I can’t take my eyes or my hands off her.”

“Josh!” Donna blushed.

“Wow,” Cassie said, “that really is cool.”

“So you understand that this conversation cannot leave this room?”

“We understand,” Cassie replied, “but how are you going to keep this to yourselves?”

Donna looked at Josh and then spoke, “We’re deciding that right now.”

“If I were you, I wouldn’t want to hide this. I mean, it’s kind of obvious that you’re together,” Lauren said.

“It’s not this obvious at work,” Josh responded, “we have to keep things very professional. So when we get home, away from the people and the media and the gossip, it’s hard to stay away.”

They finished dinner changing topics a few times, until it was time for Cassie and Lauren to excuse themselves.

“I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other,” Lauren said, “and we promise to keep our mouths shut until you announce something.”

“Thank you both so much,” Donna said hugging both girls.

“Good night.”

***  
“What has gotten into you?” Donna asked with a surprised grin after shutting the door.

Josh already had Donna in his arms and was prepared to kiss her.

“Sometimes all I have to do is look at you,” he said before making contact with her lips.

“That was very sweet, Joshua.”

“I can do better,” he said dipping down to kiss her more.

Donna pulled back, “that’s not what I meant…your conversation with Cassie and Lauren was sweet.”

“Sweet’s good,” he said bringing the dimples into full effect.

His kiss pushed her back to the sofa, where Josh was prepared to take things a bit further before Donna interrupted him, “Josh, we’re not having sex in here ever again.”

***  
The next few days passed without much trouble. Donna and Josh agreed to spend the nights apart until Saturday, and Donna offered to help her neighbors hang pictures in the living room. No one noticed anything different about their working relationship other than the occasional visit from the interns.

On Friday night, Josh asked CJ if she’d like to take a walk with him the next morning. She agreed, so they set a time and place to meet. He’d see Donna later that evening.

***  
At 9 am, Josh walked into the Seattle’s Best Coffee Shop near CJ’s place. CJ was already there with a newspaper sprawled out in front of her.

“Hey,” he called from the doorway.

CJ looked up and smiled. She put down the paper and walked to greet him. “Shall we?”

It was a crisp yet warm summer morning. Josh had on a red t-shirt and faded jeans, but CJ looked like she was going to work in a business suit.

“What’s up, mi compadre?”

“I just wanted to, you know, catch up, CJ. Do you have a problem with that?” Josh’s hands were shoved firmly in his pockets as he shrugged nonchalantly.

“Something’s up, Joshua. You don’t usually spend your free Saturday mornings with me.”

He let out a disbelieving laugh. “Why does something have to be up for me to want to catch up with my good friend?”

“It’s about a woman,” CJ surmised.

“It’s not A woman, CJ”

“Multiple women?” she asked with raised eyebrows.

He shook his head, she stopped in her tracks. “Josh tell me this isn’t about Donna.”

He lowered his head, but when he raised it – nothing but dimples.

“This is it. It’s come down to the last few years of the administration and NOW you’re admitting that you like her.”

“CJ, I’m way past ‘like’,” he said not being able to knock the grin off his face.

“Are you saying? Does she know about this?”

“She knows.”

“How? When did this happen?”

“We –”

“Oh Joshua, you didn’t,” CJ stated with disbelief.

“I didn’t, WE did.”

“When?”

“A few months ago. CJ, we wanted to tell you but – ”

“But nothing! You know I’m your first call!”

“We couldn’t,” he shrugged, “We were afraid that you’d tell us to stay away from each other. That we couldn’t see each other any more. You’d have Donna transferred, and I’d be without an assistant and without…her.”

“So you figured you’d tell me now, is that it?”

“I was thinking that we could skip the, you know, dating part, and move on to the more legally binding stuff.”

CJ stopped in her tracks for the second time in ten minutes. “Are you saying?”

“I’m saying,” Josh said with a full smile.

She threw her arms around his neck. After a sound embrace, she backed away and slapped him on the head.

“Ow!”

“You’re an idiot, Josh!”

“Why am I an idiot? I thought you’d appreciate that I’m doing the right thing?”

“You are,” she surrendered, “but the timing is just not good.”

“When will the timing ever be good?” he asked in a high pitched voice. “We’ve waited too damn long for this in the first place. Don’t you think we could get a little slack here? It’s not like the press doesn’t know. Hell, Danny was at the scene the first time I ever admitted to loving this woman. Toby, Will, Charlie, they were all there.”

CJ lowered her head. When she looked up at him, she said, “I’m not going to stand in the way of you and Donna’s lives together. You know how happy I am for both of you.”

“I know there’s a ‘but’ coming.”

“BUT,” she continued, “can’t you hold off for two more years? Just two more, Josh.”

They continued walking silently while Josh pondered that question.

“I can wait to make an official announcement for two years, CJ, but I cannot and will not hide my love for Donna. At the office, that’s one thing. We’ll be as professional as we always have been. But in private, we need to be together.”

She touched his face. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thank you. I haven’t asked Donna to marry me yet, CJ, but I will just as soon as you tell me it’s safe. And I don’t mean two years from now.”

“I’ll work my magic as fast as I can, Joshua.”

They embraced one last time before Josh walked the distance to his car. He would spend the night with Donna that night, and by God, he swore to do this woman right. 

As Donna opened her door to greet him with a full, vibrant smile, he thought to himself, “Two years my ass!”


End file.
